Sunday, 3 October 2010

Afghanistan

A soldier has been killed in an explosion in the Nahr-e-Saraj area of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was from the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles and was killed in an explosion while on patrol yesterday afternoon.

His death brings the total number of UK service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 339.

Spare a thought for the families and friends of these 339 of our armed forces. They have to live wondering if their loved ones' deaths were in vain. Ed Miliband has made it clear that those killed in Iraq - both civilian and military - were wasted lives. Will the same be said of Afghanistan in another 20 years?

History seems to show that warfare is a way of life to these people,they seem psychologically conditioned to war as a way of life.The idea of Democracy doesn't seem to impress them very much either.In the 19th century they fought the British Army to a standstill, with considerably more casualties than now.The Taliban use an extreme form of the same religion as the people of Afganistan and will probably integrate with them.So why did we go in there, and why are we still there?